OK, so two can play at the multimedia game: The San Diego Business Journal reports Harry Martin, better known as “Happy Hare,” is among the crew of veteran radio personalities recently hired by The San Diego Union-Tribune’s newest Internet radio station (they now have two). Martin, credited as being among the first to bring his own zany style of platter chatter to the airwaves in the late 1950s, welcomes the chance to develop his latent talk show talent in a format he calls “newsic,” which combines news talk and music each Wednesday afternoon on SignOn Radio, the paper’s second Internet radio station.
SignOn Radio, an eclectic format, was launched in October, about a year and a half after “Amplify SD,” the Union-Tribune’s unplugged station plugged exclusively into the local indie rock scene.
It’s unique among major U.S. daily newspapers, since none have followed suit. Not so far anyway. Both Amplify SD and SignOn Radio are 24-hour stations.Ron James, content manager for SignOnSanDiego.com, said he struck on the idea of hiring Martin and other radio luminaries, including Jack Woods and Paul Menard, aka Charlie & Harrigan; Dave Mason; Ken Copper and Clark Anthony, aka Clark & Copper, after attending a San Diego Press Club event honoring several of them earlier this year.
Since all were either retired, semi-retired or had been laid off from other stations, they amounted to a virtual talent pool waiting to be tapped by the virtual radio station. “These guys never retire,” James told the paper. “They just have radio in their blood.”
